Electric vehicles (“EV”) and hybrid electric vehicles (“HEV”) employ power electronics devices which generate significant amounts of heat energy. This heat energy must be dissipated to avoid excessive heating of these devices, which could lead to damage or reduced performance.
Automotive power electronics devices typically include one or more heat-generating electronic components such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, field effect transistors (FETS), isolated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), power inverters, DC to DC converters and DC to AC converters.
Although the structure of automotive power electronics devices is variable, the power electronic devices in some applications are provided with opposite planar faces along which cooling can be effected. IGBTs are an example of power electronic devices which may have this structure. Such devices can be cooled by contacting one or both of the opposite planar faces of the device with a heat sink. In order to maximize thermal contact with the planar face of the power electronic device, the heat sink has a planar surface along which it contacts the power electronic device, and a thin layer of thermal interface material (TIM) may be provided between the heat sink and the planar face of the power electronic device. To enhance heat transfer, a cooling fluid such as air or a liquid coolant may be circulated along or through the heat sink.
Known cooling arrangements for power electronics devices may include means for clamping first and second heat sink devices to the opposite sides of a power electronics package in a sandwich arrangement, in order to improve thermal contact between the electronics devices and the heat sinks. An electronics assembly having first and second heat sink devices positioned in thermal communication with the first and second side surfaces of an electronics package is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,295,433 B2 to Taylor et al. The electronics assembly disclosed by Taylor et al. is held together by a pair of fastened together clamps, each having a shape configured to engage or receive the periphery of one of the heat sink devices.
There remains a need for simple and effective heat exchangers for dual-sided cooling of heat-generating electronic components, whereby effective thermal communication is provided between the heat sinks and opposite side surfaces of the electronics components.